Compensation must follow apology: historian

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THE historian who coined the term "stolen generations" has told
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd that next Wednesday's apology must be
followed with monetary compensation for the misery inflicted on
victims.

Concerned at reports the apology might be limited to the term
"stolen generation", Professor Peter Read has also pleaded with the
Prime Minister to ensure the apology is addressed to the numerous
generations affected.

"If it's in the singular, it's appalling," Professor Read told
The Age. He estimated 50,000 indigenous children over seven
or eight generations were systematically removed from their
families.

His call came as thousands of Aborigines and their supporters
prepared to descend on Canberra for the parliamentary apology and
plans went ahead to broadcast the event on huge TV screens in
Melbourne, Sydney and both inside and outside Parliament House.

In an open letter to Mr Rudd published in The Age today,
Professor Read  who has for 25 years been at the forefront of
field research, academic study and writing on the history of child
removal  rejects claims from some politicians that the
removal polices were well-intentioned.

"Let's face it, Prime Minister, the policies were quite
malevolent. They were designed to put an end to Aboriginality in
southern Australia forever," he writes.

Professor Read, who has spent much of his academic career at the
Australian National University in Canberra and coined the term
"stolen generations" in 1981, offers his congratulations to Mr Rudd
for choosing to apologise and adds, "I'll be in the crowd cheering
you on  it will be one of the biggest events in my life."

The scientist and humanitarian Sir Gustav Nossal, also a
long-time proponent of an apology, will be overseas on Wednesday,
but vowed he would attend the Canberra ceremony "in spirit".

Sir Gustav, for a decade until 2000 the deputy chair of the
Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, has maintained for many
years a serene optimism that the prime minister who succeeded John
Howard would apologise to the stolen generations. He recalls once
investing hope that Mr Howard himself would deliver the
apology.

"At one point, I said in the media that John Howard was on a
journey," he recalls. "In fact, he had literally been on a journey
to East Arnhem Land, where he had met the elders and had
experienced life in an Aboriginal community. I thought it might
change him.

"Subsequently, John Howard rang and he said, 'Look, Gus, it is
important you understand that I have a firm point of view  I
won't apologise because I don't believe in inter-generational
guilt'.

"I said it wasn't about guilt, it was about regret. But I
understood then that he wouldn't budge, and we maintained a
mutually respectful difference of opinion. He believed in practical
reconciliation: health services and education, housing, nutrition

"Practical reconciliation is absolutely important, but I
believed practical and symbolic reconciliation were inextricably
linked, like two sides of a coin."

Sir Gus and the chairwoman of the Aboriginal Reconciliation
Council, Evelyn Scott, felt the issue was beyond party politics, so
Sir Gus sought meetings with the then Opposition leader, Kim
Beazley.

"Kim Beazley said, 'You mark my words, Gus, an apology will be
the very first thing, the very first thing I do when I become Prime
Minister," Sir Gus said.

"And, remarkably, it will be the very first action of the new
Labor Prime Minister, Mr Rudd."

In Melbourne yesterday, Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson called
on Mr Rudd to publicly release the wording of the apology to give
Australians ample time to consider it.

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